News

Lishan AZ, James Earl Cox III ’17, Natalie Gravier, and Yuting Su have been named in the “Games” section in this year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 list. Oren Rosenbaum ’11 was named in the “Entertainment” category.

Fawaz Al-Matrouk ‘10’s thesis film To Rest in Peace premiered at the Dubai International Film Festival.

The documentary Betting on Zero, directed by Ted Braun ’88, has been acquired by Gunpowder & Sky Distribution and will receive a theatrical release in early 2017.

Dancer, directed by Steven Cantor ‘95, has been nominated in the top feature film documentary category at the 28th annual PGA Awards, which will take place on January 29th.

Aaron Carew‘13 is a staff writer on Fox’s Lethal Weapon, which recently received a full-season order.

Matthew Cervi ’98 has produced the film Juggernaut, which stars Amanda Crew, Jack Kesy, and Peter McRobbie.

Naveen Chaubal ’11 is directing a short film called Pinball. Ankush Jindal ’11 and Ali Sandler ’11 are attached as Associate Producers. Bryn Silverman ’11 is a Producer, and Daphne Wu ’11 is the Cinematographer on the project.

Christine Conradt ’96 has signed a three-book deal with Harper Collins. She has also wrapped production on the thriller Killer Mom, which she directed.

Susan Downey ’95’s Team Downey has signed a first-look deal with Sonar Entertainment that will include scripted and non-scripted content for television and digital platforms.

David Ellison’s Skydance has launched its new Uncharted label with Dwayne Johnson’s Baywatch as its first title.

Megan Ellison will receive the 2017 Visionary Award at the 28th annual Producers Guild Award. She will executive produce a limited TV series based on the bestselling novel Today Will Be Different under her production banner, which will star Julia Roberts. Her company Annapurna Pictures has also launched a new division dedicated to producing and publishing video games.

Dan Etheridge ’92 will executive produce the hour-long drama Criminal Magic, which has been put in development by the CW. Rick Famuyiwa ‘96 is on board to direct Showtime’s untitled Chicago-set drama written by Lena Waithe and executive produced by Aaron Kaplan ‘90.

DeVon Franklin’00 is executive producing a television adaptation of the cult 1974 movie Foxy Brown, which is being developed at Hulu.

Hadi Ghandour ‘03’s feature film The Traveller played as part of the Arabian Nights program at the Dubai International Film Festival.

David Goyer has inked a two-year first-look deal for his Phantom Four banner with IM Global TV. Under this new deal, IM Global TV is developing a television adaptation of the fantasy novel The Hike, which Goyer will executive produce. He will also produce the thriller Assassination Nation for Foxtail Entertainment with his company Phantom Four.

Brian Grazer ’74 will executive produce a television adaptation of the surf movie Blue Crush for NBC, having also produced the film.

Life in Kodachrome from Dan Hertzog ’91 was given the Emerging Artist Award for Best Trailer of the Year at the FilmMakers Global Trailer Festival.

Grant Heslov ’86 is developing a narrative feature from the documentary The White Helmets.

The Beatles: Eight Days a Week from director/producer Ron Howard and producer Brian Grazer’74 has been nominated for “Best Music Film” at the 50th annual Grammy Awards.

The documentary Ella Brennan: Commanding the Table, directed by Leslie Iwerks ’93, has been picked up by Octagon and Cargo Film & Releasing.

ABC has bought the patient advocacy drama The Disrupters, written/executive produced by Carla Kettner’83 and executive produced by SCA faculty member Kim Moses.

Michelle Raimo Kouyate‘95 will produce Sony’s The Emoji Movie, which will be released in August 2017.

Shawn Levy ’94 will return to direct two episodes of the second season of Netflix’s Stranger Things.

Doug Liman’s psychological thriller The Wall is set to be released on March 10th by Amazon Studios and Roadside Attractions.

Ori Marmur and Neal Moritz‘85 will produce a film from an untitled horror-thriller pitch by writer Todd Kirby. Moritz will also produce a female spinoff of Sony’s 21 Jump Street franchise.

Jaffar Mahmood ‘02 is set to direct an episode of Netflix’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt in January 2017. He has also recently directed episodes of Fox’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine, CBS’s Life in Pieces, as well as ABC’s The Middle and The Real O’Neals.

Vince Marcello ’06 will write and direct a film adaptation of the novel The Kissing Booth for Netflix.

Bret Marnell '89 was the editor for Sony Pictures Animation’s Smurfs: The Lost Village.

Steven Melching '90 was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award in the animation category for an episode of Star Wars Rebels.

Tracy Oliver ’10 is set to write the film adaptation of the bestselling novel The Sun Is Also a Star for Warner Bros. and MGM.

Christina Piovesan ’04 will work with Elevation Pictures CEO Daniel Steinman to build a new production division for the Canadian distributor.

Matt Reeves ’88 is set to direct and executive produce the high-profile project The Passage, which has been given a pilot production commitment by Fox.

Heather Regnier ’08 has sold her hour-long drama Familiar to Fox, which she wrote and will executive produce.

Jack Henry Robbins’11 directed and wrote Ultimate Ultimate, which was released on Spotify as one of their first original content shows. Jonathan Ahdout ’11 and Alexandra Sandler ‘11 both produced the show. Dan Chen ‘11 was the Cinematographer. Alexandria Mosley’11 was the Production Designer. Kendra Bradanini ’16,Jeff Cohn ’12,Michael Coursey ’11,Nelson DeCastro,Alexander Gao ’11,Nate Gold,Nell Sherman ’15, and Nikolai Vanyo ’11 also worked on this project.

Cristal Pictures has acquired the sci-fi project Imago, based on a pitch from Adam Robitel ‘00 and Gavin Heffernan.

Billy Rosenberg ’00 has been hired by Hulu as Head of Comedy.

Allison Schroeder ‘06, who wrote Fox’s Hidden Figures, has signed with Verve.

Bryan Singer ’89 is in talks to direct 20th Century Fox’s Bohemian Rhapsody, a drama about the rock band Queen.

John Singleton ’90 wrote and will executive producethe hip-hop infused drama Straight Outta Heaven for the CW.

Jessica Stephens ’11 is currently the Post-Production Assistant on Season 2 of Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders.

Lee Straus ’90 has been promoted to EVP of Business Affairs, Alternative/Reality and Specials Programming for NBC Entertainment & Universal Television Alternative Studio.

Suzanne Todd will produce the film A Bad Moms Christmas, a sequel to Bad Moms which she also produced.

David Weiss ‘87 has written the script for Disney’s Enchanted sequel, Disenchanted.

John Wells ‘82 will produce the mystery-thriller The Deep Mad Dark, which was given a pilot order from TNT.

Max Winkler ’06 has written the single-camera comedy project Catalina, which Fox is developing.